People in spiritual crisis-e.g. disoriented by psychic experiences, or direct communication with disembodied spirits, or re-evaluating their religious beliefs-have been perceived as mentally ill by healthcare professionals who are not knowledgeable about spiritual evolution. This Sourcebook gives comfort and direction to both people struggling to understand powerful inner experiences, and those who care for them. Since 1990, the text has also been used in graduate schools of Transpersonal Psychology, to increase the spiritual competency of psychologists. It is one of the first books to articulate the difference between symptoms of mental illness and signposts of spiritual or religious problems. The first edition of this book was published in 1988 under the title A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency. Emma Bragdon, Ph.D., is an internationally-acclaimed author, teacher, film producer, and psychotherapist. She is the Director of Spiritual Alliances, LLC, an educational corporation. . www.emmabragdon.com Dr. Bragdon also wrote: The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation, Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inacio, and Kardec's Spiritism: A Home for Healing and Spiritual Evolution.
